Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 28 of 68

EDITOR'S NOTE: Read Hayes, Ph.D., CPP, is the director of
the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) and coordinator
of the Loss Prevention Research Team at the University of Florida
in Gainesville. Hayes started his LP career with Robinsons of
Florida before joining J. Byron's, which later became Ross Stores.
He left his LP role to start a training and consulting firm called
Loss Prevention Specialists before obtaining his doctorate degree
and moving into academic research full time. Hayes holds an
undergraduate degree in criminology from the University of Florida
and a doctorate in criminology from the University of Leicester in
the United Kingdom. He is an ongoing contributor to LP Magazine
writing the Evidence-Based LP column.
EDITOR: You have been a longtime supporter and editorial
contributor to the magazine, which we appreciate. Today, we
want to flip the coin and have everyone get to know more
about Read Hayes. Let's start by telling us how you got
started in loss prevention.
HAYES: As a freshman in college I needed a part-time job. I
was interested in law enforcement, maybe becoming a game
warden. There was an ad pinned to a bulletin board at the
college for a store detective at a whopping $2.85 an hour
with Robinsons of Florida; at that time part of Associated
Dry Goods Corporation. My first apprehension I watched
three subjects, two males and a female, concealing apparel.
The apprehension was wild. My favorite shirt was torn off
my back. It ended up involving over ten police officers. I
had never had more fun in my life, so I was hooked.
EDITOR: Where did you go from there?
HAYES: I was also a sworn deputy sheriff briefly, working
undercover for nine months in a high school that had a crystal
meth problem. When I graduated college, I did another two-year
undercover stint in a drug taskforce. I then became a district
LP manager for J. Byron's. At one point I went off to army
training and ultimately did ten years as a reserve U.S. Army
infantry officer. When I returned from my initial army training,
my district was being reopened as Ross Stores. I did that for
several more years, but I really wanted to do LP research and
consulting, so I started a company called Loss Prevention
Specialists. There were several major retailers who purchased
and implemented the training since it was very interactive and
based on real-world scenarios.
EDITOR: You have always been driven by two things—your
own personal education and research in the industry. Tell us
how those came together for you.
HAYES: When I was young, whenever we'd drive around with
my physician father, he would listen to these horrifically boring,
sometimes grotesque professional-improvement tapes about
various diseases or medical techniques. I didn't go into medicine
as a third-generation physician probably because I was too
squeamish. But I understood the purpose for the research, clinical
trials, and so forth. I knew research helped guide what they were
doing, how they were doing it, and why they were doing it. That
was so different than what was going on in loss prevention. In LP
we were making the best decisions we could, but it wasn't based
on evidence or science, it was largely based on intuition and what
others were doing. That led me to think about what we were
doing and why, and how it really needed to be much more science
and research-based like medicine. Billions in theft, and daily
life-safety issues demanded it. We needed to understand what we
were doing based on rigorous studies and trials to build a better
industry. That became my passion.
EDITOR: Successful people often have those who have offered
a helping hand over the years. Who are some of those who
have been helpful to getting to where you are today?
HAYES: Mr. David Whitney, my first mentor in loss prevention,
always encouraged me to follow my passion. He would tell me,
"This DLPM job ultimately isn't you. You're stuck in the mud.
You've got to get out of here and make a difference. And I'll
support you." He was the first guy to do that.
UF's Dr. [Richard] Hollinger and his counterpart in the U.K.,
Prof. [Joshua] Bamfield, really helped me pursue my education,
which was a tremendous commitment. Also, Dr. Bart Weiss at the
University of Florida helped me and Dick Hollinger construct the
first National Retail Security Survey. He helped guide my doctoral
research as part of my committee, and he's one of the most
dynamic people I've ever met.
They saw that I was driven by this need to do research, and
worked with me to balance education, work, and family. They all
In LP we were making the best decisions we could, but
it wasn't based on evidence or science, it was largely
based on intuition and what others were doing. That
led me to think about what we were doing and why,
and how it really needed to be much more science and
research-based like medicine. Billions in theft, and daily
life-safety issues demanded it. We needed to understand
what we were doing based on rigorous studies and trials
to build a better industry. That became my passion.
28
JULY - AUGUST 2014 | LPPORTAL.COM
INTERVIEW